The rich really are different — and, apparently more self-absorbed, according to the latest research.

That goes against the conventional wisdom that the more people have, the more they appreciate their obligations to give back to others. Recent studies show, for example, that wealthier people are more likely to cut people off in traffic and to behave unethically in simulated business and charity scenarios. Earlier this year, statistics on charitable giving revealed that while the wealthy donate about 1.3% of their income to charity, the poorest actually give more than twice as much as a proportion of their earnings — 3.2%.

“There’s this idea that the more you have, the less entitled and more grateful you feel; and the less you have, the more you feel you deserve. That’s not what we find,” says author Paul Piff, a psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley. “This seems to be the opposite of noblesse oblige.”

In five different experiments involving several hundred undergraduates and 100 adults recruited from online communities, the researchers found higher levels of both narcissism and entitlement among those of higher income and social class.

The study, which was published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, showed that when asked to visually depict themselves as circles, with size indicating relative importance, richer people picked larger circles for themselves and smaller ones for others. Another experiment found that they also looked in the mirror more frequently.

The wealthier participants were also more likely to agree with statements like “I honestly feel I’m just more deserving than other people” and place themselves higher on a self-assessed “class ladder” that indicated increasing levels of income, education and job prestige.

But which came first — did gaining wealth increase self-aggrandizement? Were self-infatuated people more likely to seek and then gain riches? Or, alternatively do narcissistic people feel especially entitled to rank themselves higher than their actual incomes and education levels justify, therefore creating a misleading connection between wealth and narcissism?

To explore that relationship further, the researchers also asked the college students in one experiment to report the educational attainment and annual income of their parents. Those with more highly educated and wealthier parents remained higher in their self-reported entitlement and narcissistic characteristics. “That would suggest that it’s not just [that] people who feel entitled are more likely to become wealthy,” says Piff. Wealth, in other words, may breed narcissistic tendencies — and wealthy people justify their excess by convincing themselves that they are more deserving of it.

“The strength of the study is that it uses multiple methods for measuring narcissism and entitlement and social class and multiple populations, and that can really increase our confidence in the results,” says Jean Twenge, professor of psychology at San Diego State University and author of The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement, who was not associated with the research.

The findings therefore do not suggest that narcissists have some sort of financial or professional advantage. She says, “This paper should not be read as saying that narcissists are more successful because we know from lots of other studies that that’s not true. People say we have to be that way because it’s so competitive, but it doesn’t actually help you compete.”

Twenge also notes that there is a difference between narcissistic traits, as measured in this study, and clinical narcissistic-personality disorder. The disorder is actually more common among the poor rather than the rich, according to other studies. That’s probably because at its most extreme, narcissism destroys relationships both in the home and workplace — and therefore, is more likely to lead to unemployment and poverty, not success.

It’s also important to recognize that “entitlement is a facet of narcissism,” says Twenge. “And [it’s the] one most associated with high social class. It’s the idea that you deserve special treatment and that things will come to you without working hard.”

The results come as no surprise to Madeline Levine, a California psychologist and author of Teach Your Children Well, who has long treated affluent teens in her practice. “Their sense of entitlement is overpowering,” she says, describing a teenage patient who stomped in furious and feeling deprived because he was stuck driving his mother’s “mom-car Lexus” rather than being given his own BMW.

“The narcissist doesn’t suffer the most, it’s the people around them that do,” Levine says. “How parents tolerate this kind of entitlement in their kids is kind of mind-boggling,” she adds, noting that the boy got his BMW.

Manipulating the sense of entitlement, however, may provide a way to influence narcissism. In the final experiment in the paper, the researchers found that having participants who listed three benefits of seeing others as equals eliminated class differences in narcissism, while simply listing three daily activities did not. “When we make people feel less entitled, [they are] less narcissistic,” says Piff. Twenge also notes that telling narcissistic people that someone else shares the same birthday or has similar fingerprints reduces their aggression toward those they see as more like themselves.

How long those results last or whether they translate into significant differences in behavior isn’t clear. Psychologists emphasize, however, that being able to see the world from other people’s perspectives — empathy — is critical to fighting narcissism.

In the meantime, the connection between wealth and entitlement could have troubling social implications. “You have this bifurcation of rich and poor,” says Levine. “The rich are increasingly entitled, and since they set the cultural tone for advertising and all those kinds of things, I think there’s a pervasive sense of entitlement.”

That could perpetuate a deepening lack of empathy that could fuel narcissistic tendencies. “You could imagine negative attitudes toward wealth redistribution as a result of entitlement,” says Piff. “The more severe inequality becomes, the more entitled people may feel and the less likely to share those resources they become.” The wealthier certain segments of society become, then, the more vulnerable communities may be to selfish tendencies — and the less charity the least among us can expect.

Almost everyone has some narcissistic traits, but being conceited, argumentative, or selfish sometimes (or even all the time) doesn't amount to a personality disorder. http://www.seomelbournehq.net.au/

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It seems to me that while the wealthy may be a bit more self conscious...

The
rich do however give far more to charity than poor people do. In fact
one rich person often gives more that thousands of poor people combined. I think everyone should become rich and it can only help the poor.

Great article and always well written. I would have to agree that people with a lot of money have an heir of arrogance about them and these people often feel like they are superior to everyone else. Very seldom do you see someone with money doing anything good with it. These types of people are very self centered and egotistical and not the type of people that I like to be around. Thanks for the informative article.

Narcissism does help you to compete if you were a looser. Who is more likely to accept a win they don't deserve? Who is more likely to cheat or steal if they think they can get away with it? Who is more likely to feel fine about the outcome for the other competitors? Who is more likely to create institutions specifically designed to be their personal tools? Who is more likely to promote false claims in propaganda? It goes on

@brownbri1983 " Who is more likely to accept a win they don't deserve? Who is more likely to cheat or steal if they think they can get away with it? Who is more likely to feel fine about the outcome for the other competitors? Who is more likely to create institutions specifically designed to be their personal tools? Who is more likely to promote false claims in propaganda? "

This author obviously has an agenda and backwards logic at making a point. As professional statistician, I am becoming nauseous with surveys, stats and studies taken out of context to drive a narrative. There are so many potentially overlooked variables contributing to situations that the A=B deductions found in mainstream media journalism are almost always misguided. The Bottom line is that there are jerks in every socioeconomic status group. "wealthy" people may be more "short-tempered" in traffic because they have more responsibilities and time pressures. We never know the study specifics but bias is a huge driver of studies and data gets skewed all too easily.

Few people grow up with butlers and nannies but I'm sure the wealthy are stressed a lot more as they have a lot to look after and manage. People seem to assume they woke up one day with a big pile of money in their lap wondering "gee, how did this get here". The American Dream says that anyone can set their mind to success and have a shot. The popular attitude now is that the American dream is dead. Well, my father always said: "If you cay you CAN-you're right & If you say you CAN'T-you're right". If we all say we Can't-we're right.

Does the author want is to hate & vilify the wealthy? Desire to be poor? OR, take on the new socialist agenda that it is our duty to take away the wealthy person's possessions to help them learn how to be happy. If material wealth causes misery, why "redistribute wealth"? If one thing is for sure, those who don't earn it certainly wont appreciate it as much as those who do.

The American system worked. The continued implementation of one socialistic program after another has methodically broken down the system simultaneously. The problem is, we've all been deceived into "zero-sum" thinking that if A has it, B doesn't have it. That is not how wealth is created. Look at America from inception to now. Where did all that wealth come from? It was created. To take from the one to give to the other reduces the incentive of both to create wealth.

Wealth is created. There is not a finite amount of wealth-especially when The Federal Reserve creates over $250Bill./month and over $1Trill. of that goes overseas every year. Americans are starving and we spend nearly $2Trill./year on overseas foreign aid and war-mongering. That is $6,667 for every man, woman & child in America. $26K/family of 4. Do our leaders REALLY care to help the "problem of the month" in America? No, because the media has to hype up every micro-cosmic testimony to sell stories. The media is great at identifying-or even creating-problems but rarely let their PC bias down while searching for real solutions.

Everyone is an expert on everyone else's problems. What if we actually returned to teaching our children personal responsibility and general kindness as desirable virtues. The Golden Rule is a good place to start-Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you-however, the more narcissist an individual, the greater the challenge posed by the golden rule.

As far as Jesus stating "The rich aren't usually benevolent", I've yet to read that verse. Biblical Greek has 7 times the words of modern English. In the bible, God blesses men with riches time and again. What Jesus stated was it was nearly impossible for the "rich in spirit" to inherit the kingdom of God because their material wealth superseded their spiritual walk. Jesus' friend, Nicodemus, was very wealthy as were many more of Jesus's supporters in the bible. The truth of the matter is that luck & timing plays a huge roll in successful business ventures. Those who claim to have earned it or deserve it because they worked so hard just don't realize their fortune of probability. Those who inherit the wealth are the most common violators.

People are people. So many covet another mans wealth that they actually speak about "the rich" as if they are a sub-species". The current PC view is that the rich are bad and the "poor"(still rich in a worldly sense), are the down and outers. How about we all learn that attitude is where we are either rich or poor, not monetarily.

@KevinWolter You denounce the statistics, but I don't seem to see anything in your comment except your own personal opinions. As a statistician, did you review the study published in "Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin"? Specifically where did you find the results of this study lacking? You have offered nothing but an outdated opinion about wealth and nothing statistically to support your position, which it seems you are accusing the author of this article is doing. Just because the results of the study do not fit with your entitled narcissistic world view, doesn't make the study or the results any less valid.

I am an airline flight attendant and I often see some very very bad displays of human behavior. Recently a very ego driven women was shrieking at me to "be CAREFUL I HAVE VALUABLES IN THAT BAG!!!" I was rearranging a bin to help another passenger put a bag in the bin. She then pouted because she couldn't have the entire bin for just her. I needed help lifting a bag....no one helped me, except a young veteran - who stood up - on his artificial legs to help me. He was really really nice.

St. Francis said, "the more you own, the more you have to worry about."

The further you are from the behaviors that created your wealth, the less you're likely to attribute your prosperity to those behaviors. What grows in its place is a belief in your own entitlement. When someone says approvingly "He hasn't forgotten where he came from" it implies that others in the same position have. No one wants to confront the random cruelty and amorality of the world, so a myth that somehow you deserve your success provides a cosy bubble.

Let's face it, the rich are exposed to a lot less reality than the poor. Buddhist monks are required to beg for alms because it enforces humbleness. If you've got money and power, the chances of being contradicted or challenged diminish considerably.

The growing gap between the rich and everybody else will doom our society. It reminds me a lot of Margaret Atwood's wonderful dystopian (and prophetic) books, Oryx and Crake and the Year of the Flood. A rich elite will live in a climate controlled, gated community fraught with luxury, while the majority will be coping with environmental degradation, crime and a mean-spirited struggled for dwindling resources. I'm old enough so I won't be around to see the worst of it by I far for our children and grandchildren.

@JudithSquires I just want to Let you know, you are a hero, you are a hero because you paint the poor as victims and you paint the evil elite who are the only ones on earth with this so called Climate controlled luxury that I'm guessing is an air condition in their house. Mean-spirited struggle for resources from my experience from being at CVS on Welfare payday is taking money out of the ATM there, skipping past the peanut butter and other nutrious snacks that are cheaper and going for all the junk food.

I don't know if this epidemic can be resolved by manipulating entitlement to produce empathy. Sounds weak. The problem is that most of these rich kids (not the Zuckerbergs and Gates, who rose up, but the sons of Zuckerberg and Gates) were not bitten by what I like to call "The Picasso Bug".

Around 18-19 years old, I became an art, music and literature fanatic and wanted then and still want nothing more than to be the next Van Gogh. Nothing else will do. Wealth (unless made from selling paintings or music)? Materialistic rubbish. Does nothing for me. Good looks? Not bad, but not Keats either. If they are bitten by this 'affliction', they will quickly realize that they are pretty much useless burdens on humanity and the environment (as we all are) and may aspire to be the next Matisse.

This is not some compensation mechanism I came up with from suffering through poverty in my late teens (was not poor or close to it at the time), but has shaped me for the past 25 years and will continue to do so. It is actually a mindset that brings about a great leveling perspective and outlook toward our fellow man. Kind of, "Are you Gauguin? No? Then, please, your attitude is laughable". You never know. It could work.

In fine, when the Picasso Bug really bites, you don't give a fkuac about wealth, convenience, luxury or any other temporal concern. You don't look upon anyone with reverence unless they are established artists, or in the rare instance where they are not but you fully admire them. And, that's that. You could care less if you are ever wealthy. You just wanna be Van Gogh. Fellow artists know what I mean. Some may deny the ambition, but it drives almost all of them.

We made our beds over the last few decades fetishizing wealth, and now that our society is turning into some sort of Honduras style nightmare in which rich people walk around and drive around, not only like entitled a$$holes, but rather like they are literally lords of the manor -- Are we supposed to be shocked?

The wealthy are literally pulling food straight out of the mouths of our kids and people still stand in awe of them. Until common people wake up to the fact that the wealthy are a bigger threat to our peace and security in this country than any collection of foreign enemies, and begin to claw our money back from them, we have nothing to complain about as we have made our own beds, and now must sleep in them.

@small_axe hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha..... OH MY..... Our homeless people have cell phones, i've seen people asking for money while texting. We walk around in peaceful neighborhoods because very few people are hungry. With the exception of Chicago it seems like murder rates are going down. People without jobs in my neck of the woods have nicer places to live at then I do. Holy Cow, you would think that by reading your insane comment that the poor people are being locked in the basement of the titanic still and begging for bread crumbs like in the 1600's. No instead they are taking their welfare checks and going to Convenience stores and stocking up on cheetos instead of peanut butter

@Realworldnonfantasyland@small_axe According to several of your comments it appears you think that all poor people should be eating peanut butter over other junk foods as if peanut butter is a nutritious food? Why don't you go eat peanut butter?

Now in terms of homeless people with cellphones who text while asking for cash, but I would imagine 99.99999% of those homeless probably don't do that. Why probably? Because I've seen plenty of homeless people and they are typically all mentally ill alcoholics who will never have an opportunity to get off the street and live in a decent home. Jobless people that live in amazing houses (EVERYWHERE!)? Please. Careful with the over-generalization - you might kill someone.

Very few people are hungry? You have no idea what you're talking about.

@Realworldnonfantasyland If you had read the article before posting your GOP snot de jure, you would know that it doesn't exist. It's just right-wing fantasy.

"Earlier this year, statistics on charitable giving revealed that while the wealthy donate about 1.3% of their income to charity, the poorest actually give more than twice as much as a proportion of their earnings — 3.2%."

@small_axe@Realworldnonfantasyland YAWNNNNN.... You think the rich are not horrible people so you are an GOP snot. blah blah blah, though I did vote for Obama....YAWWWNNNN. I'm progressive. Which means I'm for people getting their sh** together, quit making excuses and understand that you have only one life to live so quit blaming the system. Excuses get you no where. You are able to overcome the system, but if you blame the system then good luck getting over it. This isn't England where you had classes that you weren't able to get out of back in the day

I don't understand their causation argument, which seems to be: narcissistic people have parents of higher social class, therefore we can claim wealth causes narcissism, not the reverse. Non-sequitur. I still don't get how we know that the kids didn't inherit narcissism rather than just wealth. The phase "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree" is not about estate transfers. How do we know that genetic narcissism isn't a cause of inter-generational immobility?

The lack of driving courtesies referred to in the article may have less to do with "narcissism" and more a reflection of social ineptitude. A visit to agrarian states in certain regions in South Asia would reveal that an absence of culture coupled with monumental ignorance amongst sizeable numbers of yesteryear's bullock plough managers turned today's luxury SUV drivers, through sale of ancestral land holdings, have more to do with roadside boorishness and marked display of a lack of evolution than the concept of self-love.

@Aksa8 I'm not sure that you can make the leap from the only reference in the article to vehicles, the teenager who wanted his own BMW, to the lack of 'driving courtesies' displayed by 'luxury SUV " drivers.. I spent four years living in Bangladesh and observed that the wealthy, who owned the biggest vehicles, drove as though the roads were made exclusively for them. It came from a sense of self-entitlement that stemmed from them thinking along the lines of "Why else would I have a luxury SUV if I wasn't deserving?" Rich people really are different than you and I. They are a**holes with money.

@queenofromania I would think narcissism would apply in a case where an individual driving a luxury vehicle, listening to beethoven on a state of the art audio system would glance at him/herself in the rear view mirror occasionally with an air of self-congratulation at being a cut above the hoi polloi in the next lane.

A nouveau-riche peasant flush with funds going around, car horn blaring and streaming the thump thump thump of his favoured kind of rustic music would merely be exhibiting a natural boorishness and lack of polish, not necessarily being narcisstic.

Both are pretty vile examples, from my point of view, but the latter is more annoying.